1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for acquiring a data field in an integrated circuit card (IC card) for multiple services. The system according to the present invention discriminates whether or not a service for which a data field area is acquired is provided by an authorized source, and controls the acquisition of the data field area within an allowable range.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an IC card for multiple serices, all the services to be provided are not always determined upon card issuance. The IC card often has vacant areas. When the IC card has vacant areas, some services may be additionally provided to the vacant areas in the card after card issuance.
The source which additionally provides a service must not be an arbitrary third party, but one of several limited companies, organizations, company groups, organization groups, or the like. Also, the data field area used must be limited. If a given service supplier is allowed to use any size of area, another would find it difficult to additionally provide a service. Therefore, it is desired that each service supplier be allowed to use only up to a predetermined size of area.
In a conventional system for acquiring a data field area, the data field area is additionally acquired based on the area size demand input from a terminal apparatus to an IC card and the data field information already formed in the IC card.
In the conventional system, data field formation demand input from a terminal apparatus can be accepted regardless of the diameter, and the data field area, corresponding to the demanded area size is acquired in so far as there is a vacant data field area in the IC card. In the conventional system, therefore, there are problems that, if only a former of a data field obtains a right and approval for forming an area, a data field may be formed in the IC card by an unauthorized source, or the data field area in the IC card may be exclusively occupied by a specific service supplier, and there may be a disadvantage that, if an attempt is made to add an additional service to the IC card, there is no area vacant for such an additional service.